Virgin Mobile JAM Packs Review: Pay As You Go Bundles From £10/month

Virgin Mobile offers 30-day ‘JAM Packs’ on Pay As You Go. Packs come with an allowance of minutes, texts and 3G internet from £10/month.

Virgin Mobile has re-launched their Pay As You Go service in the UK, with new 30-day Pay As You Go ‘JAM Pack’ bundles. For £10/month, customers on Virgin Pay As You Go can get a JAM Pack with 500 minutes, 500 texts and 2GB of internet.

The JAM Packs tariff is available without a credit check, but doesn’t provide access to 4G coverage. Instead, customers are restricted to only having 2G and 3G coverage from EE.

In this article, we’ll review Virgin’s JAM Packs tariff including the allowances available on it and how you can buy a JAM Pack bundle. We’ll then compare Virgin’s JAM Packs tariff to alternatives from other mobile networks, before looking at the coverage you can expect and how to keep your existing phone number.

On all three bundles, you’ll only have access to 3G speeds, as Virgin Mobile currently reserves their 4G coverage for Pay Monthly customers.

At the end of the 30 days, Virgin Mobile will automatically renew your bundle providing there’s enough credit on your account. You can check your remaining balance and allowance by texting ANY to 789000 at any time. Any unused allowances will expire along with your bundle, and will not carry over into the following month.

If you have a Virgin Mobile home phone or broadband service, you’ll also get unlimited ‘Virgin Mobile to Virgin Mobile’ calls on your handset. To qualify, you’ll need to text either your Virgin home phone number or Virgin Media account number to 789444. You’ll also need to top-up a minimum of £10 per month.

In general, we think these rates are exceptionally expensive, and there are some much cheaper tariffs available if you’re looking for low Pay As You Go rates (e.g. 3p/minute, 2p/text and 1p/MB on O2 and Three).

One small benefit of being on Virgin Pay As You Go is that calls are billed on a per-second basis and rounded to the nearest penny (albeit, with a minimum call charge of one minute or 40p per call). This is refreshing when most other mobile networks have moved to per-second billing, with the length of all phone calls being rounded up to a complete minute before charges are taken.

Bundle Codes

If you’d like to buy, change or cancel a JAM Pack bundle, you can text the following bundle codes to 789789:

Bundle

To Buy JAM Pack

To Change JAM Pack

To Cancel JAM Pack

£10 JAM Pack

Text Buy JAM 10 to 789789

Text Change JAM 10 to 789789

Text Cancel JAM 10 to 789789

£15 JAM Pack

Text Buy JAM 15 to 789789

Text Change JAM 15 to 789789

Text Cancel JAM 15 to 789789

£20 JAM Pack

Text Buy JAM 20 to 789789

Text Change JAM 20 to 789789

Text Cancel JAM 20 to 789789

If you have a debit card or credit card attached to your account, buying a JAM Pack will also top-up your account with the relevant amount of credit.

If you’d like to keep your current JAM Pack but would simply like to change it when your allowances next refresh, texting the code to change your JAM Pack will be a much better option.

If you’re currently using a JAM Pack and would like to cancel automatic renewal, you can text the cancellation code above to cancel your JAM Pack. This will cause you to move back to standard Pay As You Go rates of 40p/minute, 15p/text and £2/day for 200MB of internet.

Comparison to Alternatives

£10 per month bundles

For £10 per month, Virgin Mobile is currently offering a £10 JAM Pack with 500 minutes, 500 texts and 2GB of internet (up to 3G speeds only, using coverage from EE).

As an alternative, giffgaff offers a £10 goodybag with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 3GB of internet. This comes with more data and faster 4G speeds so would be our recommended alternative to Virgin’s £10 JAM Pack (giffgaff makes use of coverage from O2).

If you’d like to have coverage from EE, ASDA Mobile is also a worthwhile alternative that’s worth exploring. For £10/month on ASDA Mobile, you can get a bundle with 600 minutes, unlimited texts and 2GB of internet. However, unlike with Virgin Pay As You Go, you’ll get access to 4G speeds when using the ASDA Mobile service.

£15 per month bundles

For a similarly-priced alternative, giffgaff’s £15 goodybag will give you unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 6GB of internet. This includes access to faster 4G speeds, along with unlimited minutes which isn’t available on Virgin Mobile’s JAM Pack.

£20 per month bundles

For the same monthly price, larger allowances are available on other networks. For instance, giffgaff has Always-On data on their £20 goodybag (unlimited downloads with 4G speeds on the first 9GB per month). Three is also offering a Pay As You Go tariff with 12GB of 4G internet for £20 per month.

Coverage

2G & 3G Coverage from EE

Customers on Virgin Mobile’s JAM Packs have access to 99% population coverage across the UK. This is provided by EE’s 2G and 3G networks (this is the combined network previously formed from Orange and T-Mobile).

Before signing up for the service, we strongly recommend checking the coverage in your area on the Virgin Mobile website. When doing so, you should ignore the results for 4G coverage as this isn’t available for customers on Pay As You Go.

No 4G Coverage

Unfortunately, Virgin Mobile doesn’t yet offer 4G coverage to customers on Pay As You Go. This means customers on the ‘JAM Packs’ Pay As You Go tariff will only have access to 2G and 3G speeds.

If you’d like access to 4G speeds on Virgin Mobile, you’ll need to take a Pay Monthly contract instead. Alternatively, you can choose another Pay As You Go network like ASDA Mobile or giffgaff who both have 4G coverage.

Tethering

Tethering or personal hotspot refers to the process of sharing your smartphone’s internet connection with other devices (e.g. your laptop or tablet).

As of April 2018, the use of tethering and personal hotspot should be permitted on all Virgin Mobile tariffs.

Keeping Your Phone Number

If you’re switching from another mobile network to join Virgin Pay As You Go, it’s a straightforward process to keep your existing phone number. As an added incentive, you’ll also get a free allowance of 100 UK minutes.

To move your phone number to Virgin Pay As You Go, you should start by contacting your old mobile network to ask them for a PAC Code. This is a nine-digit code that authorises the transfer of your phone number to Virgin.

Once you have the PAC Code from your old mobile network, you can order your new phone or JAM Packs SIM card from the Virgin Mobile website. Once this arrives and once you’ve set it all up, you can then contact Virgin Mobile customer services on 789. Once you’ve given them your PAC Code, your phone number transfer will take place on the next working day (this is providing your PAC Code is submitted before 6pm).

Johnsaid:

Adansaid:

Jampack is confusing and is misleading, just bought a £20 jam pack, with 2000 minutes I can’t listen to my voicemail being directed for additional payment, when clearly on here it indicates cost 26p when outside of allowance. if I cant listen to my voicemail with 2000 minutes of allowance what does it mean outside of allowance then? in any case, all other pay as you go networks voicemail can listen so long as you have minutes and only chargeable thereafter. Spoke to virgin customer service through 789 sounds just as contradictory as their website. one minute she is like not included and when I quoted what is on the website that chargeable only when outside your allowance and I have already a new allowance she had nothing to say…

Annie medhurstreplied:

I was FORCED to have it when I didn’t want it – they didn’t even warn me. One minute I was on pay as you go, topping up £10.00 every now and then and expecting that £10 to last as long as I need it. The next minute I was sent a text saying that they had ‘refreshed my bundle’!! I didn’t even know I had a bundle. I just use my phone for occasional texts and even more occasional phone calls. I have been resisting this ‘pay so much per month and what you don’t use you lose’ for the last few years and now I’m being forced to have it. I call it stealing my money!! Will be running my credit down and moving to another network!

Hi Doreen,
Many thanks for your comment. Changing over to JAM Packs can be a good way to get internet access on your phone (e.g. you’ll get 2GB of data for £10/month). Alternatively, if you’re looking for some cheaper deals, you should also consider rival Pay As You Go bundles that offer internet from just £5/month.

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About Ken

My passion is helping people to get the most out of their mobile phone. I've been blogging at Ken's Tech Tips since 2005.

Aside from writing about mobile technology, I have an interest in software development, digital marketing and physics. Outside of the blog, I work with numerous technology companies helping them to market their product to consumers. Find out more.